GOONJ - Alarming Flood Situation In Bihar : Help Needed

[Guest guest]

Good Day Brothers and Sisters, Its Sunday, 19th October 2008

Another way to help the flood affected in Bihar ...

forwarded to me By Colonel Naresh Rastogi ...

It's been more than a month that I've been traveling in the remoteaffected areas, have given to GOONJ's 'RAHAT FLOODS' campaign inBihar.with the help of boats, motorcycles or tractors. I can onlytell you this is something unimaginable. It's probably not right tocall what's happened in Bihar, as floods. It's basically a largescale displacement where hundreds of villages now fall in the newpath of the Kosi river. It's not like normal floods where the excesswater of the river creates problems rather it's a disaster wherehundreds of villages, thousands of houses are submerged in water andthousands of people and cattle have lost their lives. The scale, thesuffering and the kind of devastation is mind boggling; even after amonth, thousands are still stuck inside villages still submerged inwater.Imagine if Ganga stops flowing through Varanasi and changes itscourse to

flow through Lucknow & what will happen to the land and thepeople of this new route???I have to confess that even after witnessing and working in manydisasters since 1991 I've never seen such scale, such tough terrainto work in. There is a sea of suffering with no end to the tunnelbecause these are not just victims of this disaster but most havebeen victims of extreme poverty for the last many decades & The reality is that for many months the situation will remain grim. Astate which hardly had electricity or pakka houses in the villages, astate which is a synonym of bad governance and minimalinfrastructure, where in many parts women barely manage with a tornsaree, where millions have not seen a doctor in their entire life; inshort even before this disaster, life for many was already much belowthe normal living standard. Now there are over 20 lakh peoplehomeless, on the roads, with the

cloth on their back as their onlypossession.GOONJ is not a big or international agency, it's a small bunch ofdedicated souls & a large number of dedicated volunteers, working24x7 to do our best.. The way people took up our campaign and trustedour work has been heartening and extremely touching. We don't believein putting up big banners and working on the easily availableaspects/areas. In Bihar also people/organization s know us for ourfocus on reaching places where no one has reached so far.My appeal to you right now is to keep your patience with us; whetherit's getting your receipts or getting acknowledgements for materialgiven. Be assured that with our limited resources we are on the job & We assure you that every single person/organization will get a dueacknowledgement/ credit/receipt. I do appreciate the corporate housesthat have done tremendous proactive work to support our

reliefcampaign. Many organizations have even motivated their employees togive one day's salary to GOONJ. Thanks for all your sincere efforts;we assure you that every bit of your trust, material and money willreach the deserving people.But I would certainly like to send out a word to a few CSR people whocall up our office and ask questions like- "how far is Kosi river fromSaharsa" and if they don't get the exact no of kilometers theythreaten to report my colleagues to me. Or the wife of a CMD of apublic sector company who gave us some ration and clothes at afunction with a lot of fanfare; three cameras, a speech deliveredthrice to get the right flavor; resulting in wastage of precious timeof a GOONJ team member. Or arguments on why a truck can't be unloadedat 2.00 am in the night? Please do understand that our team isworking round the clock under tremendous pressure and with verylimited

resources. They are also human beings and without any logicalreasoning it's not right to make uncalled demands on them. (The truckwould anyway be allowed to move out in the morning only). A personfrom a reputed organization told us that they would give us theircontribution at a special function organized for the purpose, forwhich someone from GOONJ would need to be present. When we said thatwe didn't have an office in that city the person wanted someone totravel out or else threatened to give the money to some other NGO. Myhumble submission to such demands; kindly go ahead & My humble appealis not to use this as the only opportunity to show how concerned weare. Good work always shows and one doesn't need banners all aroundfor that. The need of the hour is to spend our time and resources inthe most effective manner.We anyway never force you to give us everything and we certainlydon't see a

disaster as an opportunity for raising money for GOONJ?Besides, money alone can't solve this problem. We need people on theground to do something..Many people have asked us for volunteer need in this campaign. Rightnow is the time for you to visit our stores to see the work and tohelp in sorting etc or visit the affected areas to take part firsthand in the distribution and see how this operates.. The fact is 5000kgs of rice may be a big quantity here in the city but when we give itin the affected areas; this is just a one-day meal for 10,000 people.Now imagine, we are talking about millions and their survival for afew months.This is just the beginning- a possible outbreak of an epidemic andthe approaching winters are going to be much bigger disaster in thisregion.. And even when the media attention over GOONJ willcontinuremain in Bihar for a few months.We have already initiated

an additional campaign for the floodaffected regions in Orissa and the demand might grow further & We havealready sent 5 trucks of material to Orissa and many more will go.Keep a track of us therefore and do continue your support & GOONJ.. is an attempt..,a small effortfor deprived people.. OUR MAIN INITIATIVESNOT JUST A PIECE OF CLOTH By providing a small piece of clean cloth to a village woman, to be used as a sanitary napkin, we can preventa multitude of hygiene problems SCHOOL TO

SCHOOLForging long-term strategic relationships between rich urban schools and rural schools OUR NEW TARGETWe are committed to provide clothing to 100 villages of the

Musahari community in Bihar by January, 2008.The process has begun. TURNING TSUNAMI WASTAGE INTO RESOURCE The progress so far on our project where we are turning the Tsunami Wastage into a resource to be used all over the country.

VASTRADAAN We believe that just by re-using our old clothes the problem of clothing for the poor can be solved to a very large extentRAHAT FLOODS In the last few years Goonj.. has annually been initiating ‘RAHAT-FLOODS’ to collect relief material for the lakhs of victims in Assam, Bihar & West Bengal during floods. RECYCLING - A New Approach GOONJ.. Newsletter ArchivesRAHAT FLOODS BY GOONJ: HighlightsGOONJ is running one of its biggest relief campaigns in Bihar rightnow; in terms of network, area covered, material & ration generatedand distributed. ..Scale of our work-Geographyü GOONJ is working extensively across many flood- affected parts ofBihar. Widespread work is going on in the worst affected 5 districtsof Saharsa, Supaul, Madhepura, Purnia &

Khagaria.Our city patrons/partnersü Over 200 corporates, institutions, schools and hundreds ofvolunteers from across India and abroad have been a part of thiscampaign. GOONJ mobilizing 30 to 40 trucks of specific material fromDelhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Ahemdabad, Bhopal, Nagpur, Hyderabad,Amravati, Bangalore & many other cities.ü The material includes tones of dry ration, clothing, thousands ofnew sarees, utensils, tents, milk powder, torches, buckets, blankets,mats etc. More material is still being dispatched from collectioncenters in different cities.Implementation on the groundü GOONJ has mobilized its network with over 18 grassroots partnerorganizations/ Panchayats/ activists in Bihar with focus on reachingthe completely cut off villages on a large scale.ü So far GOONJ has reached over 30 completely cut off villages using,boats, tractors, motorcycles,

bicycles or even by walking on foot.Over one lakh kgs of food grains have already reached about 8000families in these villages.ü A GOONJ packet is approximately 12 kgs, aimed at providing eatablesto a family, for at least a week. To fill up gaps in relief materialwe are also giving a cooking vessel, a bucket, a glass and a platewith the same after assessing the needs in the villages.ü Distribution is taking place on the basis of a coupon issued by usafter a proper survey and listing.. The data base generated from thisexercise will be used for the next phase of relief material;primarily clothing & woolens. This database will also be useful inour future interventions in these areas.ü Apart from supporting a kitchen in 3 camps for the first 15 daysGOONJ is now focusing on filling up gaps in relief efforts in termsof ration, tarpaulin and other material in different areas.ü

On September 7th GOONJ started first of its kind medical aid atSukhasan village, about 15 km deep into the flooded area. Instead ofwaiting for people in the area to come out to the relief camps, thistimely medical attention proved critical in saving lives.Furthermore, a new boat has been given to the village and the doctoris traveling to different waterlogged areas, in a 2 kms range. Thisnew experiment has been able to support over 1000 patients. It hasalso helped in preventing forced evacuation due to illness apart fromtaking care of pregnancy and acute diarrhea cases in the villageitself. Even after 5 weeks the village is still in a few feetwater...ü Apart from supporting various organizations with material for theirmedical vans/ambulances, we are also supporting doctors in the reliefcamps with medical supplies. GOONJ's cloth sanitary napkin (under itsinitiative 'Not just a piece of cloth')

is addressing a very widelyneeded and ignored requirement. We are tapping different healthcamps, vans and the women health worker network in the area to reachdeep inside the villages. GOONJ ladies undergarments are also beinggiven as an integral part of the napkin programme.Mid & Long term plans- Apart from a large scale relief operationGOONJ has launched 3 long term initiatives in the area-Initiative VAAPSI: aims at bringing people back to their livelihood.An initiative finding a high level of acceptance among the floodvictims, it focuses on generating large scale self employment in thearea.GOONJ children's' activity centers: Aiming at one of the worst hitgroups i.e. children, GOONJ has initiated the concept of creating acenter for them - to play, read, learn and enjoy in various camps andvillages. One such center is already operational on Beldor Nehar,(with SSVK, in a relief

camp area in Madhepura). Another one iscoming up in Pratapganj block, one of the worst affected areas ofSupaul. Many more are in the pipeline across the region. GOONJ isproviding tents, mats, clothes, toys, clothes slates & stationery etcfor these centers.'WARMTH' campaign is aimed at dealing with the upcoming severewinters in the region. As part of this initiative GOONJ hasconceptualized a family kit consisting of blankets, mats and woolensfor the entire family.Long-term approach: GOONJ is working through its immediate and midterm plans and has clearly defined long term plans in the floodaffected areas (which spreads till March next year) with a cushion ofextending it further, if needed.So far GOONJ has emerged as one of the biggest agencies working inthe flood affected areas, on the long term. More than a month downthe line, as the media attention is fading; many

organizations/ peopleare winding up their support work. GOONJ will continue its work heretill March 2009, primarily keeping in view the winters; a disasterwhich is just round the corner.GOONJ has established linkages with volunteers from many cities aswell as from within the affected villages and other grassrootsorganizations. They are working closely with us on information andcoordination support. The packing of material has been decentralizedat hubs in Triveniganj and Purnia apart from our base office and campin Saharsa.Breaking the Myth; Clothing is in excess in BiharAs always the reality is very different & as always clothing isstill an ignored issue. The reality is, Clothing is needed on a bigscale as over 20 lakh people don't even have an extra pair to changeinto. This in turn is adversely affecting health and hygiene and skindiseases are most common here. Strangely not

much appropriate clothinghas reached the affected areas. In some cases it's been the mostinappropriate clothing thrown at people in a very humiliating manner.Apart from our main centers in Delhi, Mumbai & Chennai, GOONJ has nowset up its own processing center in Saharsa, where volunteers fromvillages are involved in need based sorting of clothes and othermaterial.GOONJ's philosophy revolves around preserving the recipient'sdignity, therefore careful matching of material with the needs of thepeople, has been the focal point of our relief work. In turn this hasensured effective distribution with least wastage. In most casesmaterial is going as part of family packs, based on informationcollected through family surveys.Our TEAM- Mr. Anshu Gupta, Founder Director- GOONJ is personallysupervising the relief operations, based in the temporary GOONJ campin Saharsa (Bihar) together with key

member Ajay Sharma and a fewvolunteers. GOONJ has a formal set with a team of 20 people, 18big/small grass root organizations as partners and 7 storerooms inSaharsa with decentralized centers in Triveniganj, Pratapganj & Madhepura.Further requirements-ü Woolens & blanketsü Milk powderü Toys- large quantityü Sarees & petticoatü Mosquito netsü Slippersü Slates, notebooks and stationeryAddress of GOONJ Base CampGOONJKhadi Gramodyog Bhavan,D.B. Road, Near S.B.ISaharsa, Bihar--------Anshu Gupta (Ashoka Fellow)Founder DirectorGOONJ..Tel.- 011- 26972351, 41401216Add.- J-93, Sarita Vihar, New Delhi-76Email- anshugoonj24@ gmail.com

anshugoonj24@ gmail.comwww.goonj.info

The following images ought to refresh your memory

in case you have forgotten ....

 

Alarming Flood Situation In Bihar ------------ ------Friends , see these pictures. Situation is even worse than this.

More than 30 lakh ppl are evacuated . Hundreds are missing.

They are badly in need of your help.

Any help will be helpful.

Please make sure that your help will reach in needy hands.

You can collect and send medicines, candles, match boxes, clothes,

blankets, packed food items like rice, wheat etc specially Polythene sheets

for making tents.

 

Friends, you just can't imagine how large is the tragedy.

There is no food , no water , no electricity and no means of communications

in many areas..Ppl are dying of hunger and dieases.

I want to make a special request to Bihari doctors to please do something for your state. If possible make some arrangement to go there . (Some Bihari doctors from my city have already left for Bihar.)Indian villagers waded through waters at Jankipur village in Poornia district yesterday. Massive flooding in eastern India has caused a

national calamity, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said.Villagers wade through floodwaters on a stretch of the National Highway 106 at Veerpur, in the northern Indian state of Bihar, Friday, Aug. 29, 2008. The Indian government has made available more than US$200 million to combat monsoon flooding in the country's north that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh described Thursday as a national calamity.Flood-affected people move to safer grounds through a flooded road in Madhepuratown in India's eastern state of Bihar August 30, 2008. Indian authorities, hampered by heavy rain and damaged roads, were struggling on Saturday to provide aid to millions of displaced villagers in Bihar hit by the worst flooding in 50 years.An aerial view of flood hit Madhepura district in Bihar state, India, Tuesday, Aug. 26, 2008. Indian officials have appealed to more than 1 million people in

flood-ravaged northern India to flee for their lives, saying they face death from a surging river if they remained in their homes.Rescuers help people to safer areas in Patna, India, Saturday, Aug. 30, 2008. A rescue boat filled with flood victims capsized and killed 20 people in northern India, where monsoon flooding grew worse because of heavy rain and water flowing from neighboring Nepal, officials said SaturdayFlood-affected people wait to be evacuated by a rescue team at Chondipur village of Madhepura district in India's eastern state of Bihar August 31, 2008Flood-affected people carrying their belongings move to safer places at Madhepura town in India's eastern state of Bihar, August 29, 2008..

 

Working for God on earth does not pay much, but His Retirement plan is out of this world.

Help someone have a nice day,

visit www.thehungersite. com

 

With best wishes,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Love you all

 

(bruntno1

Cybugle )

 

 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Feel free to forward this post in its entirety

without changing the credits

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~~ ~